Can't trust Akalis, so asking for judge: Capt

Demanding judicial inquiry is not interfering in the investigation of the international drug-trafficking racket exposed with the arrest of dismissed police officer Jagdish Bhola, Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh has said.

On Saturday here, the former chief minister was replying to the accusation by CM Parkash Singh Badal that the demand was interference. "Why is Badal running away from the judicial inquiry?" said Amarinder, iterating that only a high court judge could lead a credible and transparent investigation into the police-politician nexus in the crime.

"I have all the appreciation for Patiala senior superintendent of police (SSP) Hardial Singh Mann and his team that busted the drug racket, and full confidence in the SSP's integrity but I don't trust the state government, particularly the ruling Akalis, with the investigation," said Amarinder.

"Irrespective of what police will find out, the Akali government will try to filter it, so that the names of its leaders don't come out," said Amarinder, adding: "A judicial inquiry has become all the more important, as the name of an Akali legislator has come out in the racket.

Amarinder also said the revelations had come not from the Congress but a senior Akali leader about his own party's legislator and MP. "Can anybody expect Badal to be impartial in these matters?" he said, accusing Badal of trying to politicise a serious issue.

"Without judicial intervention, nobody is going to accept your investigation, and rightly so, because that is not going to be fair," he told Badal.